The Year in Zombies 2010

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The dead rose from their graves and ate the brains of our favorite games.

By Hilary Goldstein

Zombies are everywhere these days -- in movies, on TV, and yes, in video games. This year more than any other in the past, zombies became a dominant theme. Should this influx of zombies lessen next year, then we'll be able to look back and call it a fad of 2010. But considering the success of zombies in games, we're likely to see more of the undead in the coming years, not less.

So why are zombies so popular? Maybe it's because we feel just a smidge less guilt popping a cap in someone who's already dead than an enemy soldier who might have a family. Maybe it's because programmers can get away with lame, mindless AI in the guise of the walking dead. Or maybe it taps into some ancient truth about the human condition -- that we fear and embrace death simultaneously and zombies are the perfect realization of both. Whatever the reason, it's fun shooting things in the head.

By my count at least 30 games released this year have some form of zombie in them. My definition of zombies: something that dies and returns as a mindless, savage creature with the sole purpose of killing the living.

Of course, there are plenty of traditional zombies this year showing up in expected places. A pair of Left 4 Dead 2 downloadable packs, The Sacrifice and The Passing, feature zombies -- that's the game after all. And the PSN twin-stick shooter Dead Nation is about a zombie outbreak. The PC sensation, Minecraft, has little zombies you must defend against, and Puzzle Quest 2's fantasy theme lent itself perfect to some undead enemies.

But zombies made many appearances in unusual places, sometimes not as your traditional brain-munching baddies. The majority of opponents in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands are men brought back to life as vicious sand zombies, Mass Effect 2 has the Geth reanimating the dead as "husks," and the scourge of Albion in Fable III are the undead Hollow Men.

What does this new zombie apocalypse mean for gamers? Perhaps highlighting a few notable instances of zombies in games can help us figure that out.

Dead Nation

The end of the world has come thanks to a viral zombie outbreak. The dead are crawling out of their graves, and they sure are hungry. It seems like you just might be the last person on Earth, meaning you are also a travelling McDonald's with bright neon arch above your head. Zombies swarm -- hundreds at a time -- and only your trusty flamethrower and powerful grenades can hope to provide a path to safety.

One of the benefits of this current generation of consoles is that you can stuff dozens, even dozens of enemies on screen at one time. And that makes zombie games a perfect choice. I'm not suggesting game developers aren't creative, but it does seem that whenever there's the potential of an oppressive swarm of enemies in a dark or frightening environment, zombies are the easy fallback. I suppose Dead Nation could have been nothing but icky spiders or gruesome skeletons or some new menace, but it's zombies. Because zombies are just the obvious fallback. And that's why we'll keep seeing zombies, because, honestly, no one's really got a better idea.

The zombie menace has been an issue for decades, as proven by the historically accurate Call of Duty: Black Ops. Richard Nixon, JFK, Castro, and Robert McNamara fight off an unrelenting zombie hoard in the Pentagon. Judging by his impeccable aim and penchant for headshots, I'd say Castro was the shooter in the grassy knoll. And Tricky Dick, well, he's a beast with a shotgun.

Using zombies as catalyst for a cooperative survival mode seems like an obvious use and one we'll probably see reused in the coming years. Keep in mind, the Zombies Mode in Black Ops is really just a bonus feature and not the focus of the game. But the gaming community's odd attraction to zombies makes this little addition a selling point. Have no doubt: Black Ops is outpacing Modern Warfare 2's sales in small part because of the promise of zombies.

If 2010 taught us anything, it's that no game is safe from zombies. Take the Old West of Red Dead Redemption. A quiet, peaceful land, slowly being tamed by the newly industrial world. And then, as if in a dream, the dead rise from their graves and start causing havoc. The minute the undead show, other mystical creatures -- sasquatch, the horses of the apocalypse, Chupacabra -- decide to make appearances and help trim down the population.

The big winner in this year's zombie sweepstakes is Rockstar's Undead Nightmare downloadable add-on. Red Dead Redemption was already a hit, but the zombie DLC ended up being more popular and even better received than the main game. Downloadable content's potential has always been to revitalize game sales after the initial release and a zombie version of Red Dead's world certainly renewed interest. And publishers took note. Unfortunately, they most likely assumed that adding zombies is what made it so cool, when in fact, it was merely taking the familiar and finding a twist that altered our view of the game world. It doesn't have to be zombies, but zombies certainly don't hurt.

Zombies are here to stay. At least for the next year or two. The undead aren't really a hindrance to good game design, but there's the potential for zombies to become a crutch. Because zombies are in right now, publishers will be eager to approve games featuring these flesh-chopping baddies, but that doesn't excuse developers from providing innovative gameplay in these titles.

The problem that any trend raises is that games get made as a cash-in, not because they make for good experiences. Here's hoping 2011 brings more zombie surprises and a fresh take or two on the tried-and-true undead formula.